TAYABAS CITY, Quezon – Around 120 coconut farmers from Cavite, Laguna and Quezon provinces graduated from Agricultural Training Institute’s (ATI IV-A) “Farm Business School” (FBS) Course at the St. Jude Coop Hotel here on Wednesday.
Senator Cynthia Villar, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Agriculture and Food, graced the graduation rites encouraging the farmers-graduates that “there’s good income in farming.”
The farmers, comprised of four batches came from Indang, Cavite; Pagsanjan, Laguna; Tayabas City; and Alabat, Quezon. This brought ATI’s total schooled farmers to 34 and some 926 farmer-graduates from the Calabarzon region covering the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.
ATI’s Farm Business School is one of its flagship projects under its services and programs through partnership undertakings.
Anchored on the institute’s mission, the ATI Region IV-A has partnered with the Philippine Coconut Authority (PCA) to capacitate small farmers in entrepreneurship development and on the value-chain contributions to food security.
The ATI farmers’ training school also assists in improving market access; increasing the income of market-oriented farmers, and strengthening the farmer-graduates’ entrepreneurial capacity in managing their association “Kasaganahan sa Niyugan ay Kaunlaran ng Bayan” (KANIB) in Region IV-A.
The coconut farmers’ graduation activity is also an offshoot of the conducted Training-of-Trainers (ToT), in partnership with the Villar SIPAG Foundation.
ATI Region IV-A officer Marites Piamonte-Cosico led the delegation in facilitating the graduation ceremony together with Senior Agriculturist Sherylou Alfaro and other staff.
PCA Administrator Romulo J. Dela Rosa, Regional Manager III Erlene C. Manojar, PCA provincial managers and local government representatives of Tayabas City and Alabat, Quezon also graced the occasion.
The ATI is the extension and training arm of the Philippine Department of Agriculture, mandated to train agricultural extension workers and their beneficiaries and lead in the delivery of e-extension services for agriculture and fisheries. (Gladys Pino/PNA)
